The Power of the Sun
by writer writing
Summary: The sun has power over the earth and Clark's powers, a summer fic.


A/N: This is a fic I wrote last year for the summer fic exchage at DI.

The air conditioner was broken. Clark put down his screwdriver and sighed. "It just can't cope with the temperature outside."

"I'm not surprised. It's a 115 degrees. Can't we buy a better air conditioner?"

He shook his head. "I already checked. They're completely sold out and we couldn't afford it even if they weren't. They're too much in demand."

She sighed. The heat was unbearable and oppressive. It was like a hot woolen blanket pressing on the lungs and squeezing the moisture out of a person. Her clothes were soaked. "And you. Why aren't you sweating?"

"I guess some people can stand the heat better than others."

"I guess so," she said, not completely convinced of his reason.

"We'll be fine as long as our body temperatures don't rise with the temperature outside. We just have to keep drinking plenty of fluids."

"How long will we be fine?"

He didn't have an answer for her.

She turned toward one of the windows to glare at the cause of their suffering. He blew a gentle breeze toward her while her back was turned.

She felt the breeze. "Where did that come from?" she demanded frantically. She ran to the window that was slightly cracked and opened it up as high as it would go in hopes to feel more of the breeze. She sighed when it didn't come. "Let's go to the lake," Lois said, turning back toward Clark.

"The lake?" he asked, unsurely. Hardly anyone ventured outside unless they absolutely had to, but she looked at him so pleadingly, he couldn't tell her no.

The lake was a pitiful sight when they got there. A small muddy puddle lay in its middle, but the rest of it was completely dry. That wasn't as unnerving to Clark as the fact that every time he took a step, the ground beneath him trembled. He looked toward the sky. There was no denying that the golden orb was growing in size and with it his powers were growing. Scientists said it was only a matter of time before Earth stopped supporting life because it was too close to the sun.

"It's not worth the effort, is it?" Lois asked. "I knew the lake was drying up, but I didn't know it was this bad." She looked toward the car. She wasn't eager to make the trek toward the vehicle. She looked back toward the lake and then got excited. "I think I see something. Wait right here." She took off as fast as she dared in this killer heat.

Clark zoomed in using his vision to get a better look at what she thought she saw in the brush, but he couldn't get it to stop. He zeroed right in onto a red patch. It was like looking under a microscope. He could tell it was a strawberry though. He knew he had to stop using his powers before something really bad happened. They were out of control.

A small trickle of sweat started from his forehead and slowly worked its way down. The heat was finally beginning to get to him. For the first time, it was beginning to feel warm. The bead of sweat slowly coasted its way down his face until it settled onto his lips. He finally made a move to wipe it off, tasting the salt. It was the body's way of cooling a person down, but it was doing little good today.

He didn't know by how much, but it was hotter than 115 degrees now. Lois had been sweating from the beginning. She had arrived yesterday with a soaked shirt, telling him how the air conditioner had stopped working at her apartment. Even if it hadn't, there were times when you had to stick together.

Clark fell to his knees. The ground beneath him shook and the earth beneath him split a little. He wished it was from exhaustion, so it would weaken his powers, but it was simply hopelessness. How was he going to stop this? Even he couldn't get the earth to stay on its axis, rotating it like some Kryptonian Atlas. 'I might end up destroying the world before the sun does,' he thought bitterly, 'if my powers aren't soon reigned in.'

He finally looked up from the cracked Earth. Lois stood in front of him. She was wearing only her bikini. Even in this utter agony, he couldn't help but think how beautiful she was. Her skin glistened in the bright light. There was something about the fruit in her hand being so close to her bare skin that tantalized him beyond belief. He wanted to lick the hot, sticky juice off of her. He couldn't touch her though. He knew that. He didn't even dare to brush up against her with his increased strength. His eyes were already burning worse than it had when he had first obtained his heat vision and he was barely keeping it under control.

"I managed to find some strawberries. Maybe they'll help to cool us off a little bit," Lois said.

He couldn't speak for Lois, but he had only felt hotter since she arrived with the strawberries. His eyes moved to her face and he realized how weak and tired she looked.

Lois and Clark each took a strawberry, tasting the succulent fruit as if it could solve all their problems by cooling them off. A kid ran by, stumbling, and snatched the rest of them. He didn't make it 15 feet before he fell over. How could anyone be mad? It was pitiful and heart wrenching. They smiled to show that he could have them and then got up to head back to shelter of the farm.

sss

Lois sat on the couch and Clark took the chair, not even daring to be on the same couch as her.

"What is the matter?" she asked.

"I have a confession to make to you," he said slowly. He knew that he had to tell her. He couldn't have it all end by her thinking that he didn't want to hold her in his arms.

"Well, the end of the world is as good a time as any," she said, still able to draw on her sarcasm even in her sun-wilted state.

There wasn't time to beat around the bush. "I am the Blur. I was born on another planet that was destroyed. The sun is the source of my powers. I'm sorry I haven't told you before. I can't touch you because my powers are out of control. You probably shouldn't even be in the same room as me. I don't know what to do."

"Sunblock," she suggested. He was surprised that she was coming up with a solution rather than talking about his secret first. "It would keep most of the rays from getting to you and powering you up."

There was no sunblock in the house as he didn't normally have any use for it. "I don't have any."

"Lucky for you that I sunburn easily," she got up and brought him her bottle of sunblock.

He took the bottle and poured the greasy white lotion onto his hand. He slathered it all over him. With each inch, he felt just a little better. When the sunblock was applied, he tested it out. He picked up a metal lamp and twisted it. It took every ounce of strength he had to bend it. "Lois, you're brilliant," he exclaimed with a smile.

She smiled with him and they hugged each other, but they sobered the instant they looked out the window like they always did when they saw the sun beating down these days.

The sunblock would keep him from bringing the world to destruction, but nothing could stop the sun.

sss

Clark woke up with a start and a shiver. It had all been a terrible dream. The frigid air was proof of that; it felt like needles prickling him. Lois sat by his bedside. She couldn't have dressed more warmly or in more layers if she was an Eskimo and yet the calendar clearly read the middle of July.

"I had a dream. The world was getting closer to the sun, not further."

"That must have been nice," she said with a sigh. "I'd give just about any thing to feel warm, sweet sunshine on my skin."

"It wasn't as nice as you'd think. Can't you sleep?" he asked, sitting up.

She shook her head. "No, and we're out of wood."

"Don't worry. We can start burning the barn and if we have to, the furniture."

She nodded, but it didn't cheer her. She knew that they would all be frozen over before they had to burn furniture. They wouldn't even get through with the barn.

"Any chance you'll put on a bathing suit?" he asked in a hopeful but teasing tone, hoping to make her smile.

"Sure. I'll put it on over what I'm wearing," she said with a small smile.

"Somehow I don't think it would be the same," he said with a long face, but with a twinkle in his eyes.

It was Clark's turn to sigh as his eyes drifted to the window. It was noon. It should have been daylight, but it was just darkness and the sun was beginning to appear more like the star that it was than a sun to give them warmth and divide the day and night.

The further it got, the more devoid of powers he became. He was ordinary, too ordinary to right anything if anything could have been done. Just like in his dream, there was nothing that could be done. The sun would still destroy the world but in a less direct way.

sss

Clark woke up again. It was a dream within a dream. He moved to the window.

The sun was right where it should be, no closer and no farther. Not that it wasn't still hot outside being July, but it was bearable. It was an absolute miracle that the sun never moved and the Earth never changed course. The sun sustained not only his powers but life. If the plants did not get sunshine, nobody or no animal could eat. The weather also mattered. There were only certain temperatures that a person could stand. He sent up a prayer of thanks for the perfect design. Then he went to see if he could talk Lois into spending a day at the lake in her new bikini. Maybe he could talk her into bringing along some strawberries.

The End


End file.
